We have just had a lovely week in Cornwall, the weather was fine for late October (Cornish fine, windy and the odd heavy shower) so we managed to get out and about a bit.
A very dear friend had a massive stroke some years ago and is totally wheelchair bound now so I booked a wheelchair friendly cottage through our Holiday Propery Bond at Duloe Manor for half term week and the friend and wife joined us. Unfortunately, they had to be back in Bath after three days so some other friends came to take their place, the second set of friends are not nearly so restricted but did enjoy the accommodation being so user friendly.
We drove down on the Tuesday morning and stopped at the big Morrisons superstore at Liskeard to do some shopping. I do not often have access to Morrisons but have to say that I was most impressed with this store. It was very busy indeed and a case of queuing for a car parking space which took about ten minutes. We had lunch at the store in the cafe, I had a child's portion of fish fingers with chips and peas which included a drink of apple juice, a small bag of mixed apple slices with grapes and a little chocolate bar: all for £2.95. Incredibly good value and quite adequate.
The cottage itself was lovely, a very large kitchen/dining/sitting room complete with flat screen television, radio, DVD player and the kitchen part had a dishwasher and washing machine. There was a downstairs twin bedroom and an upstairs double; both ensuite. There was also a separate shower room upstairs because the sofa in the sitting area converted to a double bed so had we had another couple they would have had a private bathroom. The Duloe Manor complex had an indoor swimming pool so I was able to continue my daily swim habit and most of the time had the pool to myself.
The first evening I cooked supper for all of us; we started with some celeriac remoulade with salami and chorizo followed by pork chops in a mustard and cider sauce with new potatoes and tomato and onion salad. Pudding was caramel oranges and then a cheese board. Accompanied by a couple of bottles of wine and much reminiscing. The friends are the parents of our godchildren and their daughter is getting married next April so there was quite a bit of chat about that.
Wednesday dawned and fortified by toast and marmalade we set off for the Minions Heritage Centre which proved very elusive. There are absolutely no signs at all in the area of how to find the actual main building so we gave up and went to the pub for lunch. I had a really good ham and cheese toastie which was accompanied by a pile of chips and a salad - all for £3.50. A nice local Cornish cider on the side was absolutely perfect. We then went off to St Neot church to see if it lived up to my happy memories of some of the best stained glass I have ever seen - it did. I had forgotten the magnificent rood screen and the angels attaching the walls to the roof so they were like a totally new discovery.
HPB Duloe offers a bondholders' supper on site on Wednesday so we signed up for that. They do not have a licence so it is a BYO for the wine and there are large jugs of iced water on the table. It was a very large table to encourage people to talk to each other and there were sixteen of us there. The two courses of chicken breast cooked in marsala and mushrooms with vegetables followed by apple pie (with raisins and cinnamon and the most incredible short pastry) with clotted cream were excellent value at £13.50 per person. We had a lovely evening chatting to fellow holidaymakers and the excellent and unobtrusive service added to our enjoyment. The catering is done by a local company who come on the site to finish the cooking and serve.
